With Contrition in His Voice, Olbermann Returns to ESPN

Keith Olbermann has had a peripatetic and stormy career as a sports anchor and the host of a politics-oriented news program.

He has worked at CNN, ESPN, MSNBC, NBC, Fox and Current TV, routinely producing memorable work but not always getting along with his colleagues..

On Wednesday, he announced that he was returning to ESPN to be the host of “Olbermann,” a late-night sports program on ESPN2. It has been 16 years since he left ESPN, where he was the popular co-anchor of “SportsCenter” between 1992 and 1997.

“It almost defies my ability to talk about myself to say something coherent and relevant about this,” Mr. Olbermann said in a conference call with reporters. He added, “There is no way to forecast my career path.”

The hourlong “Olbermann” â€" which will be shown at 11 p.m. Eastern time, or later if the live games that precede it run long â€" will capitalize on his deep sports knowledge. But he will avoid the political subjects that were at the core of the liberal-leaning “Countdown,” which he hosted on MSNBC from 2003 to 2011, and revived for a year at Current TV before he was fired.

“This is going to be a sports show, and clearly a sports show,” John Skipper, the president of ESPN, said during the call. “Politics and governance and elections will not be the subject of the show.” But he added that politics would not be off-limits to Mr. Olbermann if they interact with sports.

“Olbermann” will make its debut on Aug. 26, nine days after the start of Fox Sports 1, which is being developed by News Corporation to compete against the ESPN sports empire.

“I’d be disingenuous if I said this didn’t help us,” Mr. Skipper said about the rehiring of Mr. Olbermann.

Still, bringing the mercurial Mr. Olbermann back to the network was not a run-of-the-mill personnel move. He had, at times, a rocky tenure at ESPN â€" feuding with other anchors, acting condescendingly to co-workers, and making an unauthorized appearance on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central that got him suspended.

“It was ultimately my decision as to whether the merits of Keith’s singular talent will help us serve sports fans and helps us attract sports fans at 11 p.m.,” Mr. Skipper said.

Mr. Olbermann sounded contrite about his previous behavior and the effect it had at ESPN. He had similar problems at some of his other network postings.

“We can gather everybody who took offense at what I did and we’d need Yankee Stadium,” he said. “I can say, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

To those who are skeptical about his contrition, he said, “All that will make a difference is how I will conduct myself.”